


A Party by Horses

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 15:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16162109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Some of Jacky's horses decide to give her a good birthday. Chaos ensues. Jacky belongs to Zebrablanket.





	A Party by Horses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zebrablanket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zebrablanket/gifts).



"She's coming, look alive," Thunder announced, standing up straight in his stall. The buckskin Lusitano was the most serious horse in this stable, obsessed with having everything done correctly. The other horses, however, had no such interest, Flylion trying to shuffle around to get the best view out the window, Ruby snorting and shuffling in her stall, and Nidhogg tossing his head. Midnight, the bay quarter horse, was the only horse even remotely looking ready for his rider to enter the stable. Thunder pinned his ears, giving an angry whinny in an attempt to get the other horses in order. It didn't work.

"You'll learn eventually," said Midnight, giving a nicker to the newest horse. "Jacky's stables are rather unusual."

"Tell me about it," said Ruby with a scoff. "She won't even ride me for missions with the Soul Riders, and I'm her Soul Steed."

"Sorry," said Midnight, sounding just a little smug as Ruby pinned her ears and turned to face away from him. "Jacky feels closer to me."

"I don't even know why she still keeps me in here," Ruby groused. "Why doesn't she just put me out in the pasture and be done with it?"

"She did that once," said Midnight. "As I recall, the result is standing in the stall beside you."

"You're hilarious," Ruby grumbled, pinning her ears and looking murderous.

Before Ruby could commit homicide, though, the stable doors opened, saving them all.

"Morning, guys," Jacky called, taking her hat off so she could see the horses properly and ensure that they weren't getting up to too much trouble. She'd already had to put out a fire started by Demon and Pyro. Fortunately, this time, there was no such fire, the stable looking relatively normal.

"Good morning, Jacky," Midnight greeted her, stretching his neck out over the stall door for Jacky to pet. "Have you come to train someone?" The stable was filled with nickers by the other horses; Jacky wasn't exactly known for training her horses.

"I don't think so," said Jacky with a laugh. "I'm taking a certain special someone out for a birthday right."

"It's your birthday?" asked Thunder with a surprised whinny.

"Yeah," said Jacky. "It's today. I'm older now." She grinned. A year older and still no closer to rescuing Anne. Well, that wasn't entirely true, but Anne wasn't back in Jorvik yet. That was okay, though, at least she'd had some fun over the past year.

"So, who will you take with you?" asked Flylion. She'd loved to ride him once, just like she'd loved to ride everyone here once (other than Ruby, who was very much offended by this fact).

"Hmm. You," Jacky decided, grabbing a halter from the tack room and approaching Dragon's stall. The Friesian Sport Horse gave a happy nicker and swish of his tail, happily accepting the halter and stepping out of his stall after Jacky. "I'll be back later, guys, don't stay up."

As soon as Jacky had left and they'd heard the sound of her departure, Thunder got everyone's attention again.

"What?" Ruby grumbled, glaring at him.

"Well, you heard her," said Thunder, nosing open his stall door and stepping out. It was perhaps the most mischievous thing he did, but Jacky never minded when her horses walked around the stable. "It's her birthday, we should do something to celebrate."

"Why?" asked Ruby. "What's she ever done for us?"

"Put a roof over your head, kept you in her stable, taken you to Pandoria, taken in your son," said Midnight, counting his hoof against the tiled floor of the stable as he listed off each item.

"Yes, I'm so glad," Ruby grumbled. She remained in her stall while the other horses stepped out, though, even her son joining the group that gathered in the hall.

"So, what do humans do for their birthday?" Thunder asked. "Is there anything special?"

"They light fire atop a giant cake," said Pyro, his eyes gleaming. Flylion shook his head with a whinny.

"No they don't, they light candles," said Flylion.

"Oh. I just saw fire," said Pyro.

"That's all you ever see," said Midnight.

"Fire is fascinating," said Demon, his red eyes shining.

"This is why we had that barn fire," said Midnight, tossing his head in exasperation. "Does anyone here know what normal human birthdays entail?"

"Well," said Ruby, turning back around. "In Firgrove, they usually have a large cake around Jacky's birthday."

"Jacky said it's not there yet, though," said Midnight. "She was a little annoyed by it."

"Hmm. Perhaps we could ask the residents of Firgrove to create her another birthday cake?" asked Thunder.

"And how are we supposed to do that, stupid?" said Ruby. "We're horses, we can only talk to Jacky."

"Charades?" Midnight suggested.

"Or we could find the ingredients and a recipe and try making it ourselves," said Flylion.

"Yeah, there's no way this is going to end well," said Ruby. "I'll just be here in my stall, sleeping. At least I'll look like the good horse for once."

"You never look like the good horse," said Midnight. Ruby snapped at the end of his tail as he flicked it at her as he walked past.

"Thunder, you're tallest, you open the stable doors," said Flylion. Thunder snorted but lowered his head. Being the tallest had nothing to do with it, all of them were big enough to reach the human-sized door handles. Even Pyro, who was the smallest in the stables (even if he was the fattest).

Passersby were both amused and startled to see a group of six horses of varying sizes and breeds walking out of the stable, especially when Thunder turned and closed the doors behind them. Midnight led the way to Firgrove, being the designated leader of the group since he knew the island well from Jacky riding him everywhere.

Demon forced the group to stay at slower gaits, much as Thunder wanted to gallop ahead and get the party started for Jacky. Though it might not be something expected of horses, he wanted to do something for his beloved rider. At least this group had agreed, all except Ruby. Though, he was a little surprised to see that Nidhogg had tagged along. He'd thought that the young horse would've wanted to stay at home with his mother.

But at last, the motley crue reached Firgrove, startling a group of girls who stood in front of the stables.

"Alright," said Thunder. "We're here. What now, Midnight?"

"Well, usually, there are a lot of tables set up in a row along the front of the stable, between it and the inn," said Midnight, gesturing with his head and then walking along the space to demonstrate. "It makes it very difficult to get to the stable when it's here."

"Then why not just go around the other way?" asked Flylion. Midnight went silent. Neither he nor Jacky had thought of that.

"And where does the cake sit, then?" asked Thunder, looking around and trying to picture where everything would go.

"Oh, here," said Midnight, standing in the cake spot. "It sits on a number of tables. And the eating tables are lined with benches."

"Interesting," said Thunder. "Where can we find some benches?"

"I saw several on the way here," said Nidhogg.

"They could work," said Thunder. "But maybe we should look around town first, and try to find the tables."

"Those tables?" asked Flylion, trotting over to the cafe. Midnight shook his head.

"No, too small," said Midnight. "The tables for the party are longer. I don't know where they keep them."

"Let's split up and look," said Thunder.

"Someone should probably keep an eye on those two, though," said Midnight, gesturing with his head toward Pyro, Demon, and Nidhogg.

"You're right," said Thunder. "Flylion, I'm putting you in charge of these three. Make sure they don't get up to too much trouble."

"Okay," said Flylion, trotting back over to the two small horses and the one small but getting bigger one. "Come on, let's go and look for the benches while they look for the tables."

The group split up, Midnight and Thunder looking in every building for tables. While Midnight looked in the windows at ground level, Thunder reared up and looked in the higher windows. At last, though, they found the right place, a building towards the back of Firgrove that seemed to be used for storage.

"Found them," Midnight neighed, calling over Thunder, who had been peering inside the upstairs of another building. Thunder hurried over, joining Midnight in looking through the window. Inside, he could see furniture covered by dust-protectors, recognising the shapes of tables and chairs. There were even some benches in there, and party decorations.

"Good job!" Thunder congratulated him, whinnying his delight. "We have to tell the others, we don't need benches now. This must be where they keep the birthday things for each year."

"That does make sense," said Midnight, looking quite pleased with himself. "Let's go find the others, they might be able to help us get this building open and the tables and chairs and things out."

Thunder and Midnight looked around Firgrove first but, finding nothing, headed down the road instead.

"Should we check the mountain pass?" asked Midnight.

"I'd prefer not to," said Thunder, shaking his head at the thought of travelling up into the mountains. There were so many prickles up there, and bushes, and trees, and that scary polebending apocalypse race that had a sheer drop at one end.

"Pyro and Demon will probably be there," said Midnight. "And I saw benches up there once."

"See them or run into them?" asked Thunder.

"Does anyone ever actually see the bench or fence first in Jorvik?" asked Midnight, shaking his head as he began to head up the trail. "Jacky thought we could jump it. I did, too. I've never been so glad for her innate healing magic."

"I still don't understand how that works," said Thunder as he reluctantly followed Midnight up the rather steep, twisty path that led through the mountains between Firgrove and Valedale Lake.

"You'll get used to it," said Midnight. He heard noises as they reached the top of the last bend and hurried his steps, worried about what they might find.

Cresting the hill, they were relieved to find that the four troublemakers weren't halfway down the mountainside with broken legs. Instead, chaos was erupting at the polebending apocalypse track, which was lit with that eerie red light and set up with the illusions of barbed wire and spiked barrels. Thunder gave a whinny of dismay as he plunged down the slope, while Midnight only gave an exasperated toss of his head and followed at a more sedate pace. As he got closer, he could see that Pyro and Demon were having the time of their lives on the track, jumping over barbed wire and haring around turns, while Nidhogg and Flylion took turns leaping down the cliff and teleporting back up to rear. There were a few benches discarded near the entrance to the course, lying on their sides in a messy heap.

"Okay, guys, we found the benches, you can come back now," said Midnight, standing at the entrance to the racetrack. Demon flew past him, ruffling his mane, while Pyro followed in his wake, holding a burning torch in his mouth.

"How did he get that?" Thunder asked, his ears pinned as he watched Pyro run past.

"We went to the Valley of the Hidden Dinosaur," said Flylion, looking delighted as he trotted over to the pair. Nidhogg followed after jumping off the cliff one more time.

"But we didn't leave you alone for very long," said Thunder, shaking his head in confusion.

"With these four, it doesn't take very long to get up to mischief," said Midnight, leaning forward and nipping Demon's tail when the Jorvik Wild ran past. Demon tripped on a rock, crashing into the barbed-wire fence and neighing in annoyance as he rolled on his back. The track blinked out of existence, the cliff returning to being just a cliff. He looked up at Midnight, huffing, before getting to his feet with an annoyed flick of his red tail.

"Aww, you ruined the track!" Pyro complained, trotting up to them with the torch still in his mouth.

"Put the torch down, Pyro," said Midnight. "We still need to set up Jacky's party."

"Fine," said Pyro, reluctantly letting the torch drop. Demon stomped on it, the only one able to withstand the heat.

The group followed Midnight and Thunder down from the mountains without too much protest, thankfully, though they seemed a little overexcited now. Thunder was concerned, but Midnight seemed resigned. It seemed that this had happened before. That just made Thunder even more concerned.

"Okay, now how are we going to get these out?" asked Flylion after Thunder and Midnight had shown them the building.

"We could always buck the doors open," said Nidhogg.

"That seems a little extreme," said Thunder, pinning his ears.

"Do you have any better ideas?" asked Midnight. Thunder shook his head.

"Fine, but I'm not happy about this," said Thunder as he took his place at the doors. He shifted his weight to his front hooves, then slammed his hind hooves into the back door. Flylion did the same, bucking at the doors until they lay on the ground, broken. But at least the doors were 'open'.

Working together, the group managed to first drag the dust cover off the furniture and then drag the furniture out one by one. Just as they were placing the last bench beside the table, a girl on horseback approached, one that Midnight recognised as another Soul Rider. He lifted his head after nudging the bench into place.

"Hello, Eden," said Midnight. Eden looked over the scene of chaos, surveying the damage. The tables weren't in anything resembling a straight line, neither were the chairs, and Pyro and Demon were currently having a tug-of-war over one of the tablecloths.

"Do I even want to know what's happened here?" asked Eden.

"No, you really don't," said Thunder.

"We're throwing a birthday party for Jacky," said Flylion.

"I can see that," said Eden, noticing the damp edges of the tablecloths where horses had clearly carried them in their mouths.

"It didn't exactly go according to plan," said Thunder.

"Good thing I came along, then," said Eden, dismounting Phoenix. "What else needs doing?"

"Well, I'd like for there to be a cake but none of us can cook," said Thunder.

"I'll do that, then," said Eden. "All you need to worry about now is being here and waiting for her. I'll call her when it's ready."

"Thank you," said Thunder. "I'll try to convince this lot to behave." He looked behind himself at the mischievous bunch.

Jacky was a little surprised when she got a phone call from Eden, but only a little.

"Oh, hey, Zeal," said Jacky. "What's up?"

"Come to Firgrove," said Eden, a smile in her voice.

"What for? Did they get the cake set up?" asked Jacky.

"Yep," said Eden, grinning as she looked at the cake that she'd spent all day making.

"Sweet! I'll be there in a bit," said Jacky, and ended the call.

By the time Jacky arrived, the horses were all sorted out properly, even the pyromaniacs behaving themselves for once.

"Wow," said Jacky with a laugh, looking at the cake first and then at the tables and chairs and horses. Zeal waved at her, already sitting at the tables with a slice of cake in front of her. "What, did the horses set up the furniture or something?"

"Yes, actually," said Thunder, looking quite proud of himself. Jacky smiled at him, dismounting Dragon to hug her new Lusitano around his neck.

"Thank you," said Jacky. "You guys didn't have to go to all this trouble for me."

"We wanted to," said Midnight. "To give you a good birthday."

"Aww," Jacky cooed. She looked surprised when she saw Nidhogg. "Wow, he went against his mother?"

"My mother hates you but I don't mind," said Nidhogg. "Also Demon and Pyro were coming, so I wanted to come too."

"Right, of course," said Jacky, shaking her head. "How many fires do I have to put out?"

"None," said Thunder.

"Well," said Pyro at the same time. Thunder closed his eyes and breathed deeply while Jacky only laughed.

"It can wait," said Jacky, sitting down at the table with a slice of cake that Midnight had picked up for her. She smiled at her chosen steed, petting his neck. Just like every day, there was still plenty of work to be done and literal fires to put out. But at least she could enjoy some cake before she went off to do that.


End file.
